Ways to Connect

Vermonter and investigative journalist Michael Hastings has died in a car accident in Los Angeles. When Vermont’s health care Exchange opens for business later this year, it’s likely that there will be only two insurance companies offering products. Senator Bernie Sanders says a new report shows that the average student loan debt for college students in Vermont is higher than the amount for students in other states.

Governor Peter Shumlin has signed three bills that promote energy efficiency and clean energy. Critics of a proposed Addison County natural gas pipeline say the developer has exaggerated the project’s environmental and economic benefits. A Vermont man who says he fired some shots to stop a man from cutting his neighbor's trees has been accused of reckless endangerment.

A Burlington-based nonprofit called the Vermont Fair Foods Campaign released a report Thursday on working conditions in the state’s food industry. The group based the report on a survey of 168 food service workers across the state.

Workers cited low wages, no paid sick leave and unaffordable health care among their biggest concerns. Twenty-five percent of the workers surveyed said they either lost wages or had to work while sick.